On July 1st 1867 the British colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada joined together to form a ‘Federation’ and Canadians celebrate this day as a national holiday commemorating the ‘birth’ of Canada. Canada was mentioned a few times on Star Trek, but its greatest contribution is as the real-life birthplace of many Trek stars, including three series regulars.

The most notable Canadian in Trek would be William Shatner, in the video below the original Captain Kirk shows he is a proud Canadian

UPDATE: Apparently we forgot to mention one of the greatest Canadians of all. Stephen McHattie, who impersonates TrekMovie’s own resident expert, Senator Vreenak

McHattie, Romulan and Canadian

Canadians Love their TrekAlmost 8% of visitors to TrekMovie.com come from Canada (coming in a close second behind the UK for international visitors). Canada is also home to TrekMovie.com’s own Alex Fletcher, our Comics editor. The Space Channel in Canada still plays Star Trek The Original Series, Star Trek The Next Generation, and Star Trek Voyager in regular rotation, something they have done for years. This commercial for the Space Channel from 2001 makes the point well.

Canadian Triva

Maquis member Michael Eddington’s family was from Canada

The original captain of the USS Voyager was ‘Nicole Janeway’ played by French-Canadian Actress Genevieve Bujold (who left the show during the shooting of the pilot)

Quadrotriticale, the supergrain that Tribbles love to eat, was invented in Canada

One of DS9’s shuttles (The Yukon) was named for a river in Canada

The city of Vulcan, Alberta Canada embraces its Trek name with an annual Trek convention and visitors center

Over 5000 Canadians have applied to land two spots in NASA’s next class of Astronauts

Thanks for posting this Trek Movie! It’s very interesting and makes me proud when I know how deeply involved our culture is with this great franchise. I know there will be more to come after the new movie comes out and I’ll depend to hear from you guys as you report it as always! Once again, Thank you!

1. The robotic arms deployed on the shuttles and the ISS are Canadian, as is the new ISS robot named Dexter.

2. Lester B. Pearson (Canadian Prime Minister 1963-68) is considered by some to be the inspiration of the Prime Directive concept for Gene Roddenberry. When he was Canada’s External Affairs Minister, Pearson originated the notion of noninterference when he masterminded the first United Nations peace-keeping force in 1956 during the Suez Crisis. For his groundbreaking work, Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957.

Riker’s “Canada connection” is from TNG episode “Lower Decks”. One of the junior officers on Ent-D was Sam Lavelle and Riker was his commanding officer. There was a personality conflict with Riker (he believed that Lavelle was always trying to “ingratiate himself” to RIker) and communications between the two were strained and awkward. One of Lavelle’s grandfathers was from Canada. Lavelle incorrectly believed that Riker was from Canada and in an attempt at small talk with him, Lavelle mentioned the point. Riker rather coldly corrected Lavelle and informed him that he was from Alaska. This was yet another embarassement for Lavelle and further increased his paranoia that Riker didn’t like him.

it puzzled me that Starfleet adopted the Mountie uniforms for many of tha’ films… looked good… I wear a replica o’ it for formal events aboard ship… got a maple syrup stain on tha’ coat’s white flappy part…

then there wuz tha’ time the USS Celine Dion was attacked by a space moose… turns oot it wuz a Rommie ship but Ensign Hanson couldn’t see tha’ radar correctly as his eye wuz swollen from a puck ta’ tha socket…

I feel all warm and sticky wrapped in the bonny maple syrup o’ Canada… but ye’ can keep yer “bacon”… sorry, mates…

Interesting that the actresses who played the Duras sisters are both Canadian.

Small nit: I don’t think Quadrotriticale itself was supposed to be invented in Canada, but that it was derived from a Canadian grain. I believe the episode states that…”the root grain, Triticale, can be traced back to 20th century Canada…” .

13. Basketball is from Springfield, MA. Just one town from where I grew up. It was invented by James Naismith at the YMCA as an off-season sport for the football team. Originally they used peach baskets instead of hoops. The Basketball Hall of Fame recently went under renovation and perhaps besides Dr. Suess, is the thing folks from Springfield seem most proud.

34. I think he may have been referring to Elisha Grey, also a Canadian. There was a long dispute and legal case about who was the proper inventor of the telephone. But as far as Bell, if you were to discount his native geography, then you must credit where he actually developed the telephone: Boston University.

Oh, and in addition to basketball, Massachusetts also invented volleyball, in Holyoke.

Happy Canada Day from the birthplace of confederation… Prince Edward Island! Which is where I am right now, beer in hand. Every summer the population here doubles or more. There’s a massive cruise ship I can see from my backyard, people are eating ice cream and wandering around Charlottetown enjoying the sun.

36. Selek – the ‘canadian coin’ Eddington had was what he called a “lucky loonie”. We call our $1 coin a ‘loonie’ because of the bird on it.

Last I heard Bill was still Canadian because “he was too afraid to take the citizenship test.” I don’t remember where I heard him say it, but I recall him being asked that in an interview sometime in the last few years.

Thanks Trek Movie for the Canada Day Tribute!
Raised in Montreal, huge Trek fan, and living now in sunny Belgium, I can only say Star Trek is a great way forward for how mankind could be in the future and your site helps us keep that dream alive…
Mu favorite Trek quote:
Capt Picard: “Merde!”
Awesome…

37. I don’t know about that, but the United States made several incursions into Canada during The War of 1812.
Anyway, Happy Canada Day! I don’t drink, but I think I’ll watch “Strange Brew” with Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas.

I was up in Montreal last summer (almost exactly a year ago) at the same time Bill Shatner was there for some reason. It’s a shame I was soooo close but, so far.

I think that would have made my trip up there a lot less heartbreaking than it came out to be. I proposed to a girl, then came home a lot more earlier than planned (she did say ‘yes’ though) But, I did end up visiting the hotel where Lennon did his Bed in for Peace, though.

this guy:
Hey, I am a History Major, and from what I recall from my History book, we were 1 town away from taking Canada from the British during the revolution! As for the War of 1812, I think you guys and the British cronies lost? Maybe I am living in a temporal paradox and we are communicating through an inverse tackyon pulse and I am shifting through time!:)

I doubt the United States was ever “one town” from taking Canada from the British. That’s just astoudingly unreasonable. The American offensives into British North America were only moderately succesful at first, but eventually all failed (horribly on some fronts). I think Benedict Arnold was the commander for one of the invasions, actually.

The American revolution essentially secured independence for the .13 colonies. The British hold on Canada was never truly under threat.

As for 1812, it’s generally regarded by historians on both sides as being a stalemate. Though some will argue against that on both sides. I believe after the war, lands were redistributed to pre-war borders. Except for some island in new york. The end of the war actually lead to new diplomatic efforts which made the U.S and Britain increasingly friendly, and helped forge both Canada and the U.S. into the countries they are today.

#66, During the American Revolution, the US never actually tried to take Canada. Actually, over 65 000 Americans left the Thirteen Colonies for Canada, due to their loyalties.

During the War of 1812, nearly 12 000 Americans died compared to only 8,500 Canadians. Canada also skillfully repelled American invasions at Queenston Heights, and Quebec City (admittedly, America did raze York). Benedict Arnold’s army was severely devestated.

Thanks so much to TrekMovie.com for this article! I wondered if you guys were going to post anything for Canada Day. I really hope these posts don’t turn into a Canada vs. USA argument, because that is so un-Trek. Star Trek is something that transcends borders, and Trek’s popularity in Canada (and Canada’s contribution to Trek) really highlights this.

Thanks again Trekmovie.com for sending this shout-out to us Canadians. It makes us feel that much more welcome and appreciated.

The USS Gander was a Danube-class Federation runabout in service in 2375. It was stationed at Deep Space 9, and taken by Lieutenant Ezri Dax to search for Worf, who had been reported missing in action. The Gander was attacked and destroyed by two Jem’Hadar attack ships near the Goralis system. (DS9: “Penumbra”)

This ship was named after a river (Gander River) near the town of Gander, Newfoundland, Canada. Gander was a major aviation waypoint before the jet age, as the island is the closest point in North America to Europe.

The original name of the runabout was actually Ganges, until the writers remembered that the USS Ganges had been destroyed back in “Armageddon Game”. The line was dubbed in post-production but appears as Ganges in close-captioning.

I have lost my interest in watching the Space Channel because this network has showned alot of horror movies on the weekends lately. They should show much more movies like the 1950s classic science fiction movies.

Hockey, Plexiglass, The Canadarm and Canadarm 2 and Dextre on the ISS.
Green plastic garbage bags!
Java *programming language and app*
Standard Time
Electric Lightbulb
and many other wonderful *and not so wonderful* inventions!

To 82. Captain Hackett and . 74 Newfoundland Inkslinger
You’re not alone. I’ve been reading and sometimes posting here since it’s conception in July 2006, that’s before people started to say “first” in their posting.
Been a Fan since the 60’s, yep, the originals back in Sept, 1966. I’m alive and well in St. John’s, NL Canada.
Happy Canada Day, but tell Mr. Harper that coast to coast means Newfoundland too, seems he forgot in his speech stating Nova Scotia was … you know the rest of the story.

Another Canadian invention: the standard graphics of a stylized man and woman used to identify which washroom is which: they were first introduced at Expo 67 in 1967, to deal with the international crowds there (Expo 76 was the Montreal World’s Fair, and was held in honour of Canada’s 100th birthday), and the symbols were adopted all over the world.